Joe Paterno Facilitated Child Rape.

On the same day that an appeals court judged granted Jerry Sandusky a hearing on a possible appeal, a second story about the Penn State child rape scandal broke.  Penn Live is reporting that as far back as 1976 Joe Paterno was made aware of  Sandusky's  abuse.  That's a full 35 years before he was told about the abuse witnessed by a grad assistant in 2001 .

Per Charles Thompson of Penn Live: "A new bombshell dropped in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal Thursday.

It came in the form of a single line in a court order on a related insurance coverage case involving Penn State, and its full ramifications can't immediately be gauged.

But that line was eye-popping in itself.

The line in question states that one of Penn State's insurers has claimed "in 1976, a child allegedly reported to PSU's Head CoachJoseph Paterno that he (the child) was sexually molested by Sandusky." "

To say this is shocking is an understatement. Paterno's excuse for not reporting in 2001 was that he was old and didn't fully understand what was being reported. In 1976 he was neither old nor confused. He was a  powerful football coach at a power school.

In 1976 there was no social media so it's entirely possible he could have at minimum dismissed Sandusky and at maximum had him investigated. There would have been no blight on the program nor on Paterno. There would not have been more than a national eye brow raising and a tut tut over Sandusky's crime.

Instead of doing right by children, Paterno chose to do right by himself.  He clearly thought his program would suffer.  Perhaps people would doubt his status, his genius. Maybe people would question if Sandusky was the only coach preying on young boys.

What happened since 1976 has been well documented.  Sandusky raped at least 10 boys and was convicted for it.  He used his position of authority at his charity First Mile and his stature as a coach to groom them. He gave them gifts of team merchandise and trips to bowl games to buy their silence.

The fact that Paterno was aware of Sandusky's crimes in 1976 and still let him bring minor boys to bowl games could very well be considered trafficking.  Penn State Football essentially was a front for a child sexual abuser.  If Paterno was alive he could be facing Federal charges for criminal conspiracy

The tragedy in all of this is not that Paterno didn't get the perp walk he so richly deserved. The tragedy is that an uncounted number of boys were abused by Sandusky over a 35 year period and it could have been stopped. I'm spitballing here but I'd guess a minimum of 100 victims in those 35 years.

Joe Paterno facilitated child sexual abuse.  He knew about it. He ignored it. We once thought that he was covering up for his program for 10 or 11 years. Now we know that he was covering for 35 years. I'm not sure there's a level of hell deep enough for him.